Tag: World’s Fair

Minnesota successfully navigated the process to both re-joining the international expo community and now successfully securing a nomination entering bidding process targeting hosting the 2023 worlds fair. With the overall theme focusing on health and wellness, the critical next step is developing the proposal. Central to the proposal will be an infrastructure pitch showing the resources the region has to handle a worlds fair level crowd in terms of hotelling, transportation, and overall attractions. In addition, the region will be competing against other competitors to create a differentiated experience that makes world’s fair a historic event. The history of the world’s fair is full of precedent-setting experiences of technology, society, and culture. This will be Minnesota’s real challenge. Certainly, the fact we are already hosting super bowl level events suggests we have the basics of core infrastructure, but the differentiator will be the deciding factor. Do we have a public and globally recognized vision for our region? Are we leading the way in high growth industries and being the center of new and emerging industries? Are we looked to as a central player for innovation and solving tomorrow’s grand challenges? The bidding process will tell…

On 02/21/17 the Expo 2023 team announced that the US Federal Government had re-established its relationship with the International Bureau of International Expositions after withdrawing in the Bush Jr. era. This is a positive step forward in US / International relationships and opens the door for Minnesota to bid to host the 2023 Worlds Fair. The proposal is under development and will be submitted in an attempt to win the approval from the BIE in the coming year. With 2023 rapidly approaching, Minnesota will only have a limited window to ready itself to host the world. Everything from basic infrastructure to developing new showcase assets to attract the worldMinnesotasota will need to be developed through vast amounts of participation of the private and public sector. Stay tuned to this initiative as it leads the way for the USA to be one of the premier posters of World’s Fairs!

Milan hosted the Expo 2015 World’s Fair for its second time since 1906. The fair opened on May 1, 2015 at 10:00 CEST,and the Expo closed on October 31, 2015. The fair grounds are just northwest of the center of Milan accessible from the Rho Metro Station. The exposition site covers 110 hectares (272 acres) and is expected to attract more than 20 million visitors. Over 145 countries participated directly in the pavilions. The theme for the fair was “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.”

Several Minnesota delegations attended the fair as groups of MN representatives. This provided a great opportunity for networking and experiencing the fair. Some delegations where focused on learning best practices from the Milan organizers and to build partnerships for developing the Minnesota’s plans to host a World’s Fair. Other groups used the opportunity for international business and networking to accelerate major corporate initiatives.

I attended the October event for the planning of the Minnesota World’s Fair. Of primary conversation was an update of the bid process as the MN delegation returned from the meeting with the International Bureau of Expos located in Paris France. Conversations with the IFB had gone well and Minnesota was now on the radar for entering the bid process along other global cities.

The biggest obstacle facing our bid process and for that of other US cities currently via for various fair years, is the US withdrawal from the IFB community during the Bush administration. Continued efforts at the Federal level to rejoin the international community has not been successful at this time and currently prevents the USA from hosting a World’s Fair. Given the USA leadership role is host world renown fairs that showcased the latest technology innovation, this is a curious place to find ourselves. There seems to be a strange amount of ambiguity around the reasons for withdrawal that centers on the miss appropriation of funds during that administration, but that seems to block any effort to investigate rejoining at this time.

Only time will tell if multiple US cities can band together to lobby Washington to reverse our position. Note: The US still participates in foreign fair’s, so it seems to be more of an internal problem in Washington vs. a issue of foreign policy.

At the latest Expo2023 meeting speaker Dean Tom Fischer from the UMN design school presented on the topic of design for World’s Fair. Examples where shown of design and regional investments that had been made over history at World’s Fair. While some fair’s build temporary structures, the real opportunity allows in percent investments that transform the region with business and community assets that live on past the fair. In many cases, there are also iconic structures that are built that become internationally recognized symbols that strength the brand of the city. Some examples are the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Sky Needle in Seattle, etc.

Another major consideration is the the location of the fair. In Expo2010, Shanghai’s water front was extensively remodeled and literally remade the new downtown of the city. Other design examples included maximizing the land that is used by freeways through green space capping. This allows for “new land” integrated directly into densely built areas and create a transformative effect. The Q&A part of the event quickly moved to possible locations in Minneasota. While there are site options all around the Minneapolis / St. Paul area, the more interesting idea was that there could be locations in multiple cities making it a Minnesota World’s Fair vs. a single city format.

I was invited to speak at the July 2014 Expo 2023 event. I gave an overview of the North Star Initiative that had been researching best practices for innovation centers and corporation innovation practices. Innovation center are key drivers for economic development and a potential showpiece for the World’s Fair. Their productivity comes from become a nexus of collaboration and co-opition creating opportunities through programs and serendipity that would not be possible without a focused environment and network. The core of the best models revolve around corporate consortiums. Their funding, combined with state & federal grants fuel the programs that support both start-up and corporate ventures. Events range from industry, networking, venture capital, and student focused engagements. Events and programs provide the tempo to keep the ecosystem moving and people to create plans and milestones around to make use of the events. I have been seeing corporate to corporate joint ventures and shared patents being one of the strongest drivers and attracts corporations to have offices directly on premise. That also positions them to be in the constant deal flow of new and maturing starts putting them on the pulse of opportunities and trends. Universities play a key role as well bringing expertise and educational programs. Students benefit on multiple fronts. They can get a deeper level of entrepreneurial experience, network across corporate mentors, gain access to venture capital programs, and intern directly in the centers working on start-up and corporate ventures.

Q&A that followed after the presentation focused on how we could get the center programs started. I shared a few key first steps that provide the catalyst for many regions:

Regional Clusters must be identified to prioritize the order and focus of the initial centers. This must a balance between what the region may be known for and sectors that are emerging.

State Government needs to publicly get behind the initiative and provide some basic funding to have skin the game. State programs can be tailored over time to strengthen center programs.

Corporate consortium need to be engaged based on the sectors prioritized. Corporations play the leading roles in the success of centers. Usually there is the core group that opt in early and become leading board members and sponsors during the design and roll out. My tiers of corporate partnerships can be defined over time. The majority of funding comes from corporate and venture funding.

Federal grants are also key resources for center development, but competition between the states is high. It is best to be through steps 1-3 when entering the granting process

Universities need to play and active role. While centers can provide new revenue streams to schools through commercialization and program revenues, there needs to be a high level of volunteerism from the facaulty.

Student programs and internships should be designed into the programs at the beginning.

Corporations should look at centers as a new resources for employee development and lifelong learning. Employees and executives should rotate in and out playing a variety of roles including teachers, coaches, mentors, board members, program developers, industry experts, commercialization strategist, and network facilitators. Time embedded into the centers will broaden their entrepreneurial skills, increase their own networks, and put them on the pulse of innovation in the region.

Centers are built to also collaborate with other centers both regionally and globally. International corridors should be established to bring the best ideas, talent, and investments into the region on a regular basis that is integrated into the tempo of standard programing.

All stakeholders from government, corporate, academic, and venture community will need to play roles on boards and in center operations. There are four types of board alone including operational, governance, funding, and investment.

Regional should have many centers with different focuses, but they can all share resources and collaborate around all aspects of operations including events and commercialization activities.

I was impressed with the energy and enthusiams around the topic. I had many senior leaders approach me after the session that lead to many follow on meetings.

Initiative like this align well with the worlds fair. Their challenge is that they need to be pursued and implemented to be fully in business to showcase the region when the fair brings the world to our door.

I hosted Minnesota Secretary of State, Mark Ritchie, at the Carlson School of Management today to review the North Star Initiative that I have been leading. This effort is studying Innovation ecosystems and models of Innovation Centers to established potential models and approaches for implementation in US cities. Our visit today would be to share some of the leading trends and practices from the study and look at potential state support and corporate network contacts that could be engaged in the initative.

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One area of immediate alignment was with the World’s Fair initiative being lead by the secretary. With Minnesota on a path to win the bid to host a World’s Fair by 2023, it puts the state on a tight timeline for a whole spectrum of infrastructure investments. World’s Fairs have been used by recent fairs for extensive investment in the cities infrastructure to make it more competitive in the future and creative an environment and lifestyle suited to attack talent and investment in the region.

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A benefit of building Innovation Centers now is it would allow them to be thriving and driving various cluster level initiatives by the time the fair would bring the world to the MN doorstep. Bringing international exchange corridors to the centers would also increase the exchange of tech and talent with other countries around the world. This would increase international partnerships for the fair and set the stage for increasing the development of exchange corridors to other countries we would host.

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While Minnesota has been a cluster leader in areas like high tech and medical device the future lies in the worlds cities that become global cluster leaders and become the centers global networks for trade, tech, and talent. Innovation Centers are a key component to enable this journey and the build of durable business cluster services that are recognized and relied upon around the world. While Innovation Centers are springing up around the globe, Minnesota is trailing behind by a ever widening gap to other states in the USA. The world’s fair could be an catalyst to invigorate the state around a shared agenda to aspire to a larger leadership role in global business.